Systems and methods for characterizing television preference over a wireless network

ABSTRACT

A system for interacting with viewers of television programming includes a television set and a network terminal for each such user. The terminals are connected by the network to an interactive server which maintains a first database of persistent information for each user and a second database of current preference information for each user. The current preference information includes registrations of users as viewing particular programs or as participating in certain activities chronicled in television programs, such as lotteries, polls, and product promotions. According to information in the first and second databases and according to current user requests, the interactive server forwards information to users&#39; terminals, modifies content of all television programming, or modifies content of television programming targeted to certain users or groups of users for selection by those users&#39; cable or satellite set-top boxes.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

This invention relates generally to systems and methods forcharacterizing television preferences over a computer network. Morespecifically, the invention relates to characterizing televisionpreferences over the Internet using a wireless device.

2. Description of the Related Art

Wireless communication devices are fast becoming the communicationsmedia of choice for transporting data, and communicating data betweenusers of the devices. Many types of wireless devices are currently beingused such as cellular phones, wireless telephones, personal digitalassistants (PDAs), laptop computers and other devices with smalldisplays which display text and icons to users of the devices. Thestrong push in current wireless technology development is to usewireless devices for varied applications and which allow users of suchdevices to seamlessly integrate events and needs in their lives whilemaintaining adequate communication power to receive and transmit all ofthe data and information which has an impact on them.

The Internet has also fast become the communications medium of choicefor transporting many forms of data, including wireless data, throughoutthe world. Due to its far-reaching connectivity, the Internet isparticularly well-suited to transport an individual's data concerningpersonal preferences for parameters associated with different systems.In particular, most people have particular preferences for televisionprogramming, advertising and other content. There does not exist today asystem or method for setting such preferences with a wireless devicethrough the Internet. Such systems and methods would greatly simplifyand enhance a user's television viewing habits and make it extremelyeasy for such habits to be influenced, categorized and exploited byadvertisers or other purveyors of television information.

There thus exists a need for methods and systems for characterizingtelevision information related to a user's preferences for programming,advertising and other content. Such systems and methods should beseamlessly integrable with the Internet and usable with existingwireless devices. Moreover, information generated by setting televisionpreferences should be formatted so it can be made available toadvertisers, programmers and other providers of television content.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention characterizes television preferences of anindividual using a wireless device which is in communication with acomputer network. Preferably, the computer network is the Internet, butthe invention may be implemented on any form of computer network such asa local area network (LAN) or wide area network (WAN).

In a preferred embodiment, users equipped with television sets andcommunication terminals communicate via the Internet with an interactiveserver that is provided with a television signal. The interactive servermaintains a first database containing persistent information regardingeach user. The user communicates, through a terminal, currentpreferences to a second data base in the interactive server such astelevision program favorites, advertising favorites, hobbies, interestsand other specific television preferences which can be characterized bythe interactive server. The interactive server is operable to modifytelevision programming being transmitted to the users. In accordancewith the first and second databases and with current user requests, theinteractive server sends information to users' terminals and modifiestelevision programming. Modification of television programming mayconsist of modifying the contents of a channel for all users, orappending content to a channel for selective presentation by users'set-top boxes to certain users.

These and other features of the present invention will become apparentfrom the following detailed description considered in conjunction withthe accompanying drawings. It is to be understood, however, that thedrawings are designed solely for purposes of illustration and not as adefinition of the limits of the invention, for which reference should bemade to the appended claims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

In the drawings, wherein like reference numerals identify similarelements throughout the several views:

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a system for characterizing a user'stelevision preferences with a wireless device over the Internet;

FIG. 2 is a high-level flow diagram depicting a typical scenario inwhich the system of FIG. 1 is deployed to effect interaction of atelevision viewer with television content.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Referring now to FIG. 1, a block diagram of a system for setting auser's television programming preferences is depicted. It will beappreciated that the present invention is applicable to customizingother media content such as radio, jukeboxes, movies and other media.For convenience throughout, the media will be referred to as televisioncontent, programming, or signals.

There is a plurality of users, each equipped with a terminal 10 and atelevision set 80. (The dotted lines from XX-1 to XX-n connote pluralityof an unspecified (open-ended) number.) The terminals 10 may be anydevices capable of communicating via the Internet. Thus they may bepersonal computers (PCs) or they may be devices such as wirelesstelephones, personal data assistants (PDAs), palmtop computers, etc. Itis likely that new types of terminal devices will be devised in thefuture that will be usable as terminals in conjunction with the presentinvention. Each of terminals 10 can communicate with the Internet 30,typically though not necessarily through telephone network 20 which mayinclude the PSTN, the wireless telephone network, ISDN lines, DSL lines,etc. The terminals 10 may communicate with the Internet 30bidirectionally. (In FIG. 1, interconnecting lines without arrowheadsare bidirectional.)

Each user also has a television set 80. Television sets may receivetelevision signals in a variety of ways, such as broadcast, cable, orsatellite. A television set equipped to receive cable or satellitesignals typically has associated with it a set-top box 84, which, as isknown in the art, can interact with the incoming signal for channelselection and the like. Typically, each television set 80 has provisionto display supplementary material (i.e., material in addition to thenormal programming on a channel) in a small window 82, such that thenormal programming is substantially visible while supplementary materialis displayed in the window 82. Alternatively, supplementary material maybe displayed superimposed on the normal programming, in the manner ofmovie subtitles.

Users at terminals 10 communicate via the Internet with interactiveserver (IS) 40. Associated with IS 40 are databases 42 for storing useraccount information and 44 for storing user registration information.Generally, account information includes persistent information such as auser's name, sex, age/date of birth, address, credit card numbers,general likes and dislikes, hobbies, and so forth, while registrationinformation includes volatile information such as that the user iscurrently viewing a particular program, that she wishes to participatein a current poll or special offer mentioned on a television program, orthe like.

IS 40 receives TV programming 50, which IS 40 will forward fortransmission to television sets 80. As will be discussed below, the TVprogramming 50 may be modified or augmented prior to such forwarding inaccordance with the present invention.

IS 40 also receives customizing information 60, which may includeadvertisements, announcements of polls and candidate lists for polls,product information, special offers, lottery statistics, lotteryresults, etc. As a design choice, customizing information 60 may beprovided to IS 40 directly from some source proximate to IS 40, remotelyvia the Internet (as from a remote web server) or any combination of thetwo.

Several scenarios will now be discussed in which the present inventionenables users, by registering with IS 40 through their terminals 10, toexert some control over what appears on their TV sets 80.

Simpler scenarios involve those of TV sets 80 that receive TVprogramming via broadcast; these TV sets must display everythingcontained in the received signal on a selected channel, as opposed tothose of TV sets 80 that receive satellite or cable signals and processthem in a set-top box 84 which allows selections to be culled from thereceived signal on a selected channel.

A user watching via broadcast a particular program, here calledProgram-A by way of reference, can use her terminal 10 communicate to IS40 that she is watching Program-A. She is said to have “registered” aswatching Program-A. Some identification contained in the message fromterminal 10, such as a wireless phone number or an email address,identifies her account in database 42, from which demographicinformation (e.g., her sex and age) are extracted. (In an alternativeembodiment, such demographic information may be part of the message sentfrom terminal 10, perhaps from a template stored therein.) Theregistration (including demographics) is stored in registration database44. It is a design choice when to remove registration entries fromregistration database 44; for example a registration stating that a useris watching a particular program can be removed when that program isover; a registration stating that a user wishes to participate in a pollmay be removed when the poll is completed, plus some predetermined timeduring which participants may review poll results.

Periodically, a function in IS 40 reviews registrations 44 to deducedemographic patterns. For example, it may be found that more femalesaged 17 to 30 are watching Program-A than any other single demographicgroup. IS 40 might then elect to replace the advertisements contained onthe corresponding channel in TV programming 50 with advertisements moreappropriate to females aged 17 to 30. These other more appropriateadvertisements would have been obtained by IS 40 as part of customizinginformation 60. Thus, everyone watching Program-A, regardless of whetherreceiving it via broadcast, cable, or satellite, will see thesubstituted advertisements in lieu of those provided in the TVprogramming 50 stream.

Another scenario within the capabilities of broadcast TV reception isillustrated in FIG. 2. Line A indicates that a user is watching aparticular program (again called Program-A). Line B indicates that atthe same time the user's terminal 10 is displaying a menu, one of theselections on which is “VOTE”. In Program-A it is announced that viewerswill be polled for their views on some topic presented in Program-A. Theuser may register to vote in the poll. At some time later (allowing timefor all who wish to register to do so) IS 40 adds content to the TVprogramming to cause each user's TV set to display in a small window(while Program-A remains substantially visible) a legend indicating thatactual voting has commenced, as indicated in line C of FIG. 2. (Allviewers via broadcast of Program-A see this, regardless of whether theyhave registered to vote.) The length of time the legend is left on is adesign choice. Only those who have registered to vote (determined bypolling the voting registrations in registrations database 42) receive avoting menu on their terminals 10 from IS 40 via Internet 30, asindicated on line D of FIG. 2. The user makes a selection and sends IS40 a message containing the selection. After a reasonable period of timefor voting to take place, (optionally announced by legends added to theTV programming, e.g., “VOTING ENDS IN n MINUTES”) IS 40 can check to seethat no user has voted more than once, and then tabulate the results.The results are then sent to TV sets 80 (seen by everyone watchingProgram-A) and to the terminals 10 of only those users who registered tovote, as shown lines E and F respectively of FIG. 2.

A scenario that can have different results according to whether a useris receiving TV via broadcast or through a set-top box from cable orsatellite is now addressed. A user is watching a particular program(Program-B), and registers as watching Program-B. She may be interestedin a product that is advertised during Program-B, and may make an entryvia her terminal 10 requesting further information about the product.One simple response would be to obtain the user's email or postal mailaddress, perhaps from accounts database 42, and to mail the user moreinformation about the product. Providing additional informationimmediately via the user's TV set 80 is not feasible if the user isreceiving via broadcast, because the additional information appended tothe broadcast TV signal would be seen by all viewers of Program-B. Butif the user is receiving via cable or satellite through a set-top box 84it may be possible (according to the specifics of the cable or satellitetransmission method, as is known in the television arts) to append theadditional information to the television signal in such a manner thatonly the intended user's set-top box extracts it from the signal anddisplays it to the user. Or if several users have requested additionalinformation on the same advertised product, they may receive it forviewing simultaneously while users who have not requested it do not seeit.

The ability of set-top box 84 to extract signals for particular userscan be used with the present invention for tailoring advertisements todemographic groups of users. While the basic set of advertising on achannel can be according to the dominant demographic group of viewers asdiscussed above, user account data 42 and user registration data 44 areinterrogated to determine other significant areas of interest amongusers, and advertisements or special offers targeted accordingly tospecific groups are appended to the signal with sufficient destinationinformation that set-top boxes 84 show the alternative advertisements orspecial offers to target users.

While an advertisement, product information, a special offer, or thelike is being presented to a user, the user could enter a BUY indicationon her terminal 10. IS 40 determines what product the user was viewingat the time (different users could be seeing different products). IS 40retrieves the user's shipping information and credit card number fromaccounts database 42 and arranges to ship the advertised or offered itemto the user.

Customizing information 60 may introduce special offers in conjunctionwith TV programming content as well as in conjunction with advertising.For example, while registered to view a drama program, a user receivesfrom IS 40 a message on her terminal 10 (accompanied by an audiblesignal such as a beep to draw her attention) that says, e.g., “BUY THEDRESS MELANIE IS WEARING—ONLY $99” (where Melanie is one of thecharacters in the drama program).

Lotteries provide another area of application for the present invention.A user signifies on her terminal 10 that she wishes to participate in alottery (perhaps in response to advertisements or prompts for thelottery included in television programming). If participation in morethan one lottery is possible, IS 40 sends a menu back to the user'sterminal 10 for selection of one lottery. The user is then prompted toenter her selection of lottery numbers.

The user's selection of lottery numbers is forwarded to IS 40, whichregisters the user as participating in registrations database 44, andwhich determines the user's financial account number from accountsdatabase 42. Administration of the lottery might be performed in IS 40,but more typically is performed in some other web server (not shown)accessible through the Internet 30. IS 40 forwards the user's selectedlottery numbers to the lottery administration function, and sends adisplay message back to the user's terminal 10 confirming participationin the lottery and debiting of the user's account.

At a later time when the winning lottery numbers have been selected, thewinning numbers might appear appended to television programming, andeach user participating (as determined from registrations database 44)receives from IS 40 on her terminal 10 a message personalized accordingto her individual results (e.g., “YOU HAVE WON $50,000,000” or “TWONUMBERS MATCH—NO WINNINGS”, etc.).

A user entering the lottery may send a request to see the most commonlyselected numbers. (Such a function might be a menu item on theaforementioned display that is provided to prompt the user to enterlottery numbers.) IS 40, upon receiving such a request, interrogates thelottery administration function and forwards a message for display onthe terminals 10 of all users who have requested to view themost-selected numbers. Such a display might typically be in the form ofa histogram, depicting a line associated with each of several numbers,the relative line length indicating the popularity of the number. If IS40 detects that a large number (i.e., above some predeterminedthreshold) of users request to see the most commonly selected numbers,IS 40 will append a display thereof to television programming.

The present invention permits chatting among members of a community. Forexample, users registered as watching a particular program may enter ontheir terminals 10 comments about the program. These comments areforwarded by IS 40 for display on the terminals 10 of other usersregistered as watching that program, as determined from registrationsdatabase 44. Also, IS 40 can cause the comments to appear in the window82 of TV set 80 of users viewing the program through a suitable set-topbox.

A user wishing to view television programming in a different languagecan benefit from the present invention. Such a user registers aswatching the program, and requests subtitles in another language. Ifsuch subtitles are not available, the user is so informed. If they areavailable, IS 40 appends them to a satellite or cable transmission ofthe program for extraction by the user's set-top box 84 and subsequentdisplay to the user on his TV set 80. In the alternative, an audiosoundtrack in the requested language can be fed to the user's terminal10. The user is billed for this service through an account determinedfrom accounts database 42.

Thus, the inventive methods and systems provide a simple and efficientmechanism for setting a user's preferences for viewing televisioncontent. By using a wireless device and the Internet, a quick modalityfor communicating preferences is accomplished and standard equipment maybe used to perform the required functions. This allows the inventivemethods and systems to be implemented economically and with littledevelopment costs. Moreover, customized or preferred services may beprovided to the user by the broadcaster in view of the preferencesselected by the user. These results have not heretofore been achieved inthe art.

While there have been shown and described and pointed out certain novelfeatures of the present invention as applied to preferred embodimentsthereof, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that variousomissions and substitutions and changes in the methods and apparatusdescribed herein, and in their operation, may be made by those skilledin the art without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.It is expressly intended that all combinations of those elements and/ormethod steps which perform substantially the same function insubstantially the same way to achieve the same results are within thescope of the invention. Substitutions of method steps and elements fromone described embodiment to another are also fully intended andcontemplated. It is the intention, therefore, to be limited only asindicated by the scope of the claims appended hereto.

1.-16. (canceled)
 17. A method for implementing television viewerpolling, comprising the steps of: transmitting a television signal froman interactive server to television sets of viewers; registering, by aviewer, a desire to participate in a poll related to a particularprogram by sending a registration message from a terminal of the viewerto the interactive server using a communication network; adding, by theinteractive server, a message to the television signal, the messagebeing displayed in the television sets with the particular program andindicating information related to the poll; answering, by the viewer,the poll and sending the polling answer from the terminal to theinteractive server; and tabulating the results of the poll at theinteractive server.
 18. The method of claim 17, further comprising thestep of sending, from the interactive server to the terminal of theviewer, a choice display message indicating a menu of polling choices,wherein said step of answering said poll comprises selecting, by theviewer, one of the polling choices and sending the selected pollingchoice to the interactive server;
 19. The method of claim 17, furthercomprising the step of maintaining, in associated with the interactiveserver, a first database of viewer information for each viewer includingat least one of identification, address information, financialinformation, general preference information, and demographicinformation.
 20. The method of claim 19, further comprising the step ofmaintaining a second database of registration information for eachviewer including registration information indicating current activityand current preference information.
 21. The method of claim 19, whereinsaid registration message sent in said step of registering comprises anidentification of the viewer, said interactive server determining theviewer information from the first database based on the identification.22. The method of claim 20, wherein an indication of the registration ofthe viewer as a poll participant is removed from the second databaseafter the poll is completed.
 23. The method of claim 20, wherein andindication of the registration of the viewer as a poll participant ismaintained for a time period after the poll is completed for allowingpoll participants to view the results of the poll.
 24. The method ofclaim 17, wherein the message added to the television signal includes alegend indicating that actual voting has commenced.
 25. The method ofclaim 19, further comprising the step of transmitting a sales offerrelated to the particular program to a viewer terminal.
 26. The methodof claim 25, wherein the sales offer is based on the demographicinformation of the viewer associated with the viewer terminal.
 27. Themethod of claim 25, wherein the sales offer relates to one of clothingworn by a character in the particular program or an item being used bythe character in the particular program.
 28. The method of claim 17,further comprising the steps of: entering remarks about the particularprogram, by the viewer, on the viewer's terminal; and receiving theremarks at the interactive server and forwarding the remarks to viewerterminals of other viewers registered as viewing the particular program,thereby facilitating chatting among members of a community.
 29. A systemfor implementing a television viewer poll, comprising: a televisiontransmitter arranged and dimensioned for broadcasting a program to aplurality of television sets associated with a plurality of viewers; aninteractive server connected to said television transmitter forforwarding a television signal of the program to the televisiontransmitter and connected to communication network for communicatingwith viewer terminals of viewers associated with respective televisionsets, said interactive server comprising means for conducting a pollrelated to the program, including means for receiving registrationmessages from terminals of participating viewers desiring to participatein the poll, sending a message with the television signal so that themessage is displayed on the television sets with the program andindicates information related to the polls, and receiving results of thepoll from the terminals of participating viewers and tabulating theresults of the poll at the interactive server.
 30. The system of claim29, wherein said interactive server further comprises means for sendinga choice display message indicating polling choices to the terminals ofthe participating viewers, said means for receiving results comprisesreceiving a selected polling choice from the terminals of participatingviewers.
 31. The system of claim 29, further comprising a first databaseincluding viewer information for each viewer of a plurality of viewers,the information including at least one of identification, addressinformation, financial information, general preference information, anddemographic information.
 32. The system of claim 29, further comprisinga second database including registration information for each of theparticipating viewers including registration information indicatingcurrent activity and current preference information.
 33. The system ofclaim 32, wherein the registration messages received from the terminalsof the participating viewers each comprise an identification of therespective participating viewer, said interactive server comprisingmeans for determining the viewer information of the participating viewerfrom the first database based on the identification.
 34. The system ofclaim 29, wherein the message added to the television signal includes alegend indicating that actual voting has commenced.
 35. The system ofclaim 31, wherein said interactive server further comprises means fortransmitting a sales offer related to the particular program to theterminal of a participating viewer.
 36. The system of claim 35, whereinthe sales offer is based on the demographic information of theparticipating viewer.
 37. The system of claim 35, wherein the salesoffer relates to one of clothing worn by a character in the particularprogram or an item being used by the character in the particularprogram.
 38. The system of claim 29, wherein said interactive serverfurther comprises means for receiving remarks from a terminal of aparticipating viewer and forwarding the remarks to terminals of otherparticipating viewers registered as viewing the particular program,thereby facilitating chatting among members of a community.
 39. Aninteractive server connected to a television transmitter for forwardinga television signal of the program to the television transmitter andconnected to communication network for communicating with viewerterminals of viewers associated with respective television setsreceiving the program, said interactive server comprising means forconducting a poll related to the program, including means for receivingregistration messages from terminals of participating viewers desiringto participate in the poll, sending a message with the television signalso that the message is displayed on the television sets with the programand indicates information related to the polls, and receiving results ofthe poll from the terminals of the participating viewers and tabulatingthe results of the poll at the interactive server.
 40. The interactiveserver of claim 39, further comprising means for sending a choicedisplay message indicating polling choices to the terminals of theparticipating viewers,
 41. The interactive server of claim 39, furthercomprising a first database including viewer information for each viewerof a plurality of viewers, the information including at least one ofidentification, address information, financial information, generalpreference information, and demographic information.
 42. The interactiveserver of claim 41, further comprising a second database includingregistration information for each of the participating viewers includingregistration information indicating current activity and currentpreference information.
 43. The interactive server of claim 41, whereinthe registration messages received from the terminals of theparticipating viewers each comprise an identification of the respectiveparticipating viewer, said interactive server comprising means fordetermining the viewer information of the participating viewer from thefirst database based on the identification.
 44. The interactive serverof claim 39, wherein the message added to the television signal includesa legend indicating that actual voting has commenced.
 45. Theinteractive server of claim 40, further comprising means fortransmitting a sales offer related to the particular program to aterminal of a participating viewer.
 46. The interactive server of claim45, wherein the sales offer is based on the demographic information ofthe participating viewer.
 47. The interactive server of claim 45,wherein the sales offer relates to one of clothing worn by a characterin the particular program or an item being used by the character in theparticular program.
 48. The interactive server of claim 39, furthercomprising means for receiving remarks from a terminal of aparticipating viewer and forwarding the remarks to terminals of otherparticipating viewers registered as viewing the particular program,thereby facilitating chatting among members of a community.